Subdued melody phonograph and accompaniment record



April 4, 1939. K, Ro s 2,153,027

SUBDUED MELODY PHONOGRAPH AND AGCOMPANIMENT RECORD Filed Aug. 19, 1937 ATTORNEY.

MIKE.

Patented Apr. 4, 1939 I SUBDUED MELODY PHONOGRAPH AND AC- OOMPANIMENT RECORD ma netic. Long Island, N. 1..

Application Must 18, 1 Claim.

The purpose of this invention is'to provide means by which a musician, music student, soloist, or other musical person may obtain accompaniment to a solo, musical composition, or the The invention is a phonograph disc or other sound record uponwhich the melody is recorded at a'lower sound level than the accompaniment,- or other parts of the composition. r

It will be appreciated that present day sound recording technique demands themelody of a musical composition to-predominate, and, to this end, the musician or musicians, who play the melody-part, either play louder than the accompanying parts, or else .they are placed closer to the microphone, sothat upon the finished record this melodyis unmistakable to the listener. To

obtain the propermusical balance, separate microphones aresometimes used into which the melody is played to insure the predomination oi the melody.

Should a dance musician.- or so-called "hot or swing musician, desire to improvise a chorus using a present day phonograph record as background or accompaniment, the recorded melody line obscures the recorded accompaniment and interferes with his improvised melody.

As is seen, the object of my invention is to provide means by which a "hot or "swing dance musician may obtain accompaniment to improvisation, the melody of said accompaniment being subdued or conditioned so that it will not inter- .fere with said improvisation.

A music student or pupil, on any musical in- 35 strument, who might select a phonograph record recorded in the accepted manner to play along with, using the record as his accompaniment, would hear the recorded melody over and above the recorded accompaniment. Yet if the melody 40 was not recorded, the student might easily lose,

his place in the music. 7

So, as another object, I provide, by my invention, means whereby a music student, vocalist, soloist, or other musician, may obtain musical but may still be audible as a guide.

Other features and advantages of the invention will appear from the following description taken in connection with the drawing, wherein:

Figure 1 shows one side of a phonograph record disc indicated by the numeral l, and numeral 2 indicates grooves in which are recorded a musical composition. l

Figure 2 shows an enlarged and exaggerated 56 portion of disc 5, on which is delineated a por- (c1. sa -410i accompaniment in which the melody is subdued Patent, is:

1937, Serial No. 159,938

tion of a single groove 3 as an illustration. The difllculty of depicting,in a drawing, a recorded wave-form in which the melody alone is subdued -'will be appreciated. However, allowing the heavy line 3 to depict the accompaniment only, 5 the light dotted line 4' shows the subdued melody superimposed upon the accompaniment, the dotted line 4 being additive algebraically to the heavy line 3 to obtain a resultant single groove.

Figure 3 shows a portion of 'a variable area 10 sound film, the shaded wave-form 5- depicting recorded music in which the melody hasgbeen recorded at a relativeiylower' volume level than its accompaniment. g j

Without departing from the scope of my in- 15 vention, I may also record with subdued melody technique upon a wire magnetically, as in the Poulson telegraphone, or I may use the hill-anddale type of'phonograph disc, or cylinder, or I may use the variable density method 01' soundon-illm recording. I

To make a record of my invention, I assemble a group of musicians before a microphone or microphone system in a suitable sound recording studio. The musicians whohave parts to 5 play which belong definitely to the accompani-' 'ment are placed closer to the microphone than those musicians who play the melody part. The musical balance may best be obtained by listening to the total result through a monitor loud 30 speaker, and moving the melody player or players back from the microphone until the melody is barely discernible, the accompaniment predominating.

When the master record is completed the pressings cannot easily be distinguished visually from 'any other normally recorded composition, so I provide a label or inscription upon a finished record, designating it as being of the subdued melody type. This label or inscription may also con- 40 tain information as to the content of the sound recorded, the name of the composition, composer, number of record, etc.

In Figure 4 I have illustrated a record of an alternate type in which a musical composition is recorded with the melody subdued, with time or tempo beats, and a separate tuning frequency, all recorded on one surface.

In Figures 1 and 4 the grooves are shown as concentric, however it may be appreciated that this is a diagrammatic representation, the grooves in the actual product being spiral. 1

Having thus fully described the invention, what I claim as new, anddesire to secure by Letters A practice sound record. to the mulicclrecordin: on which, n melody in to be added by n performer as such musical recording is reproduced, comprising a record body hcvinz uninterruptedly recorded thereon, in such volume as to be audible along with the melody supplied by said performer, theboes and harmony of n musical composition,

and the melody of said musical composition only faintly recorded thereon, said melody beinz audible only to one relatively close to the reproducinz machine and inaudible when the melody is added by the performer.

KING ROSS. 

